”Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe” – Frederick Douglas.
The arrest of an Urdu journalist in Delhi has made the whole media fraternity express anguish. Mohammad Ahmed Kazmi, a journalist associated with Iranian National News agency (IRNA) and India’s national channel Doordarshan was arrested on the 6th of March in connection with the blast in the car of an Israeli diplomat on 13th February, 2012.
“This arrest of Mr Kazmi is enough in itself to raise many questions on the authenticity of the probe. The question now being asked is “Is the Indian foreign policy being guided by the Zionist lobby?”
The police version of his arrest has various loop holes. They asked for a police remand of 20 days and the main reason behind this is supposed to be the lack of evidence against Mr. Kazmi. Just a few days before his arrest, Mr Kazmi was on various News Channels supporting Iran’s right for Nuclear energy. As a journalist, Mr. Kazmi handled various assignments of international repute like Iraq War and Syria.
After that blast, the hawkish Indian TV news channels started to ask the Indian government to snap ties with Iran. The trial by the media started from day one and they had accepted the version of Israeli PM Netanyahu that the attack had an Iranian blueprint into it. All of it while the Indian government kept on denying this version.
This arrest of Mr Kazmi is enough in itself to raise many questions on the authenticity of the probe. The question now being asked is “Is the Indian foreign policy being guided by the Zionist lobby?” A few days before the arrest, an Israeli diplomat, while giving an interview to the News Channels in Delhi said, “India knows who is behind the attack but it doesn’t want to get its relation with Iran snapped.” According to the preliminary reports after the attack, the material which was used in the blast was very much similar to the one used in the assassination or should we say, the murder of Iranian nuclear scientists. At least 5 scientists have been killed in the last few years and Iran has been putting the blames for those attacks on the Israeli intelligence agency MOSSAD.
Just a day after the attack in Delhi and Tbilisi, there was a blast in Bangkok after which two Iranians were caught (but the experts say that Israel has been using the dissident Iranians of the group Mujahideen e Khalq to carry out Anti Iran activities across the world). It is to be noted that Mujahideen e Khalq has been working against the Iranian interests across the world. First it had the backing of Saddam Hussein and now it is supposed to be having a backing of the agencies like CIA and MOSSAD.
After his arrest, Mr Kazmi’s son, Shauzab flanked by senior journalists, Saeed Naqvi, Seema Mustafa and Zafar Aagha, thrashed each and every claim of the Delhi Police one by one. The cause of Mr. Kazmi’s release has turned into a movement all over the country with various Muslim groups coming out in his support. Both the civil society and the media fraternity joined the movement to save Kazmi so that the sanctity of free speech is kept unharmed.
After Mr Kazmi’s arrest, the Indian government has been caught between a rock and a hard place. At the one side they seem to be under immense Israeli pressure to solve the case and put the blame of the attack on the Iranian agencies and on the other hand, they cannot afford to get into a clash with Iran which is the largest exporter of hydrocarbons to India.
The timings of the arrest are enough in themselves to raise many eyebrows. Mr. Kazmi was arrested the very next day after the results of UP elections. The defeat in elections (for the Congress) has also been cited as one of the main reasons behind such a high profile arrest. If the Police had enough evidence against him then what was it waiting for? Many of the people fighting for the cause are of the view that it is some type of an act of vengeance by the Congress against the Muslims because of its defeat in the UP elections.
It’s now the duty of the Indian government to make sure that Mr Kazmi is not made to suffer the way Prof S.A.R Jeelani, Mr Iftikhar Jeelani and the boy called Amir were arrested and tortured, only to be acquitted by the honorable Supreme Court after losing their valuable years in prison. What if Mr. Kazmi is thrown in prison for years to come, only to be acquitted by the honorable courts? Who will get him back his lost years and dignity? If the state has the responsibility to safeguard its security then it has also has the responsibility to safeguard the dignity of an innocent law abiding citizen.
Are we living in a democracy? When it comes to torture the innocents and getting them confessed for the crimes which they never committed, there is no difference between the police and security establishment of this vibrant democracy and the nations which are being ruled by autocratic despots.
The role played by the electronic media which kept no stone unturned in declaring Mr Kazmi as a so called “International terrorist” is, if not anything else, at least questionable in the whole saga.
The family members of Mr. Kazmi called a candle light vigil on 12th of March at the India gate which was attended by thousands of people only to be blacked out by the electronic news media. What has precipitated out of such irresponsible media stand is a dangerous signal to the tenets of secularism, democracy and the values of our nation. Let not Mr. Kazmi suffer what Mr. Gilani and Aamir suffered because even if you set him free , the pain of humiliation and torture will never desert him even after the obvious manifestation is over.
